AVENGING INNOCENCE

When Chief of Police Mike wallace responds to a 911 call, he finds two other officers already on the scene along with the dead bodies of Rob and Lindsey Greysen and their six year old daughter Sydney. After the crime scene is processed and secured upon leaving the scene they are met by neighbor Chad Allen; also a police office recently assigned to desk duty. When he informs them the Greysen's have another daughter a desperate search begins in an attempt to find the missing girl before its too late

ATTENTION: THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN EDITED. FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT HAVE ALREADY READ THE ORIGINAL FIRST CHAPTER I URGE YOU TO READ IT AGAIN AS I HAVE CHANGED SEVERAL THINGS.
View table of contents...

Chapters:

Dennis Kane's heart immediately dropped when he heard there was a
possible fourth victim. It stung like a viscous swarm of angry
bees. As professionally as he could manage, he began giving
orders to the other officers in a loud, crisp voice. The instant
he finished, uniforms of black scurried quickly throughout the
halls. A few men remained on the top floor while the remaining
officers hurried towards the steps to begin their search on the
first floor.

It wasn't long before the twelve year olds bedroom was located.
Four doors down on the right, Kane walked into another amazingly
spotless room.

"In here!" Kane yelled.

Clearly belonging to a twelve year old, he immediately glanced
around the room. It was noticeably larger than the younger girls
room and was decorated in several tones of purple. The carpet was
colored as well as the lace-trimmed curtains that perfectly hung
on more than one window. The bedspread was some crazy shade of
lilac he noticed, and the wallpaper was a forest of lavender
colored flowers, scattered in a showy arrangement. Mounted
overtop in a neatly arranged mirage, were professionally-framed
posters of different shapes and sizes; several of which were
clearly 'Brad Pitt.' What is it with Brad Pitt? he
wondered. Hell,even my five-year old granddaughter
loves him! The large four poster bed--which could easily
occupy four, twelve year olds--was neatly made, and to him it was
evident no one had slept on it recently.

"Find anything?" Wallace asked walking through the door.

"No. I haven't touched anything yet sir, just looking for
anything visible at the moment."

"See anything?"

"Not yet sir. Its as clean as the last one. Doesn't even look
like anyone uses it. It just looks...too arranged sir."

"I know what you mean." Wallace said. A slight chill raced up his
spine.

Chad Allen stood in the open doorway of Nicole's room. Silently
he watched while the two officers meticulously searched the room
and dusted for fingerprints. Clearly he was nearing shock at what
had recently taken place. Who in the hell could do something
so horrific...and why? And where in God's name was Nicole?
His face was paled and his skin had a shine to it where sweat was
beginning to seep. Cop or no cop he thought, this was too close
to home and he was unable to walk into the room and once again
offer his help. He turned away from Wallace and Kane's backside
and continued walking down the long hallway silently praying
Nicole would be found safe and unharmed.

Where are you Nic?

"There's not a damn thing in this room!" Wallace cursed. "Not
even a speck of dust." He smacked his open hand onto the desk
causing Kane to jump from the loud connection.

"No sir there's not. Guess we'll know more when we get the
fingerprint analysis back sir."

"Yeah." Wallace huffed and stomped out of the room.

"You coming?" Officer Kane knew it wasn't a question.

"Yes sir." He said then followed Wallace through the open
doorway.

At the bottom of the stairs they were met by Tom Maysfield, who
along with Tony Miller, was carrying the last of the three
victims in a body bag through the empty hallway.

"Here." The M.E. handed Kane his side of the body bag. "Take this
out to the car and place it with the other two."

"Yes, sir." As obedient as a well trained Doberman, Kane took the
offered end of the body bag and did exactly as he was told,
leaving the two men to talk in private.

"And when your finished with that you and Miller begin a search
of the grounds. Dead or alive I want that girl found! Oh and find
that Allen guy...we could use his help now." Wallace added.

"I saw him walking across the field a little while ago...when we
were bringing the first body out." Miller's voice was still
noticeably shaky.

"Great...just fucking great!"

"It doesn't make sense." Maysfield said shaking his head.

"It makes perfect sense...the son of a bitch went home!" Wallace
wheeled around to face him.

"I'm not talking about that. Besides you told the guy more than
once you didn't need his help. Probably went home so he wasn't in
the way."

"He likes being in the way!" Wallace said sarcastically. As
though he just remembered the statement he asked, "What doesn't
make sense?"

"The whole damn crime scene. Its like we have three different
murders that just happened to take place in this...this house.
Think about it Mike, We have a female victim dead from an
apparent self inflicted gunshot wound, we have a male victim dead
from several gunshot wounds and stab wounds and we have a little
girl that as of this minute only God knows how died. If it wasn't
for that little girl I could believe it was domestic. And where
in the hell is the other girl. What's her name?...Nicole?"

"Yeah."

"Where the hell is she? If she's dead you would think she would
be in the house somewhere, that's where the rest of them were.
Why would she be any different unless...unless she's the one who
killed them all."

"I don't buy that Tom. Jesus Christ...hello...remember the body?"

"Sorry man," He apologized. "Your right, no twelve year old could
be capable of that kind of violence."

It was several hours before the entire place was searched with a
fine-tooth comb.

There was no sign of the twelve year old girl.

"There's not much more we can do here." Wallace finally
suggested. "Let's secure the area." He said and immediately began
giving orders.

"Miller, you and Kane stay here and guard the place. I don't so
much as want a goddamn field mouse inside that front door! You
got it? And the rest of you, I want you back at the station doing
your paperwork. What little evidence we have we need taken to the
lab for analysis. Well, don't just stand there with your hands up
your ass get moving!" He ordered.

Tom Maysfield secured an arm around Wallace's shoulder and
carefully nudged him towards his car.

"I hate to say it but you've got a big city crime going on here
Wallace, and in this small town you just don't have the manpower
your going to need."

"This may be a small town but I assure you I am no small town
cop. There's never been a case I couldn't solve and I damn sure
won't let this be the first. I can promise you that."

"I hope your right." Tom said. "What are you going to do now?"

"First off I'm going to pay Chad Wallace a visit. He knows these
people, maybe he can tell me more about them, tell me what kind
of people they were. He also said there was a break in a while
back. I want to find out about that too, see if they were caught,
who they were, why they broke in the first place, see if anything
was taken. Then after that, well I guess I'll go back to the
station and get busy sorting this mess out."

"Good Luck." Tom said opening his car door. "I have my own work
to do. I'll let you know the moment I find out the exact cause of
deaths."

After everyone was gone except for Officer's Kane and Miller--who
were left to guard the property--Wallace got into his own car and
drove off into the night, towards Chad Allen's place.

It didn't take long to find what he was looking for. Directly in
the path of his headlights the name 'Allen' was clearly posted on
a mailbox directly across the street from the Greysen's.

The driveway was gravel and from what he could see in the beam of
light was well maintained. The drive was rather lengthy and after
snaking his way through numerous dangerous curves he finally came
to a rest in front of an old two story farm house. Bright lights
lit up a good portion of the oversized porch. It wasn't nearly as
spectacular as the Greysen place but it was nice none the less.
It was a fairly large home and it was obvious it came with
several acres of land and forest. It sparkled white in the porch
light and from what he could see, appeared to be well kept.
Stepping up onto the porch Wallace extended a hand and pressed
the doorbell, instantly hearing the chime behind the closed door.

He had lost count the number of times he had pressed on the
doorbell before he finally gave up and concluded that Chad Allen
was either a very heavy sleeper or he hadn't came home yet.

If he hadn't come home yet then where the hell was he?
He silently wondered.

Mike Wallace got back into his car and drove back to the police
station in silence.

Safely inside the police station, he walked directly to the small
break room--consisting of nothing more than a coffee pot, a
microwave, a small refrigerator and two sets of tables and
chairs--and poured himself a cup of steaming black coffee. Taking
his coffee back to the privacy of his own office, he sat down at
his desk and raked his fingers through balding copper, releasing
a breath of disgust. He took a sip of the steaming liquid. He
noticed the white envelope laying on a stack of files the moment
he set his cup down.

Slightly hesitant at first he reached for the envelope, then at
once remembered Erin was getting married next month. Probably
an invitation.

He opened the envelope and pulled out the card that was inside.
The instant he opened it, he stood utterly paralyzed. His blood
boiled and his heart began beating frantically. He read the words
a second time...